Sweden's Supreme Court has agreed to reopen the case of the man convicted of killing Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

Mijailo Mijailovic, the 25-year-old found guilty of stabbing Ms Lindh to death in a Stockholm shop, will appeal for his conviction to be reversed.

Ms Lindh's relatives will meanwhile challenge a recent appeals court ruling that said Mijailovic was mentally ill and did not deserve life imprisonment.

The killing of the popular minister sent shockwaves through Sweden.

The Supreme Court gave no official explanation for its decision but a case officer told the Reuters news agency: "There are three different appeals - from the public prosecutor, Mijailovic and Anna Lindh's children - that led us to grant a hearing."

'No intent to kill'

In July, an appeals court ordered Mijailovic to undergo psychiatric care, reversing earlier judgements that concluded he was not mentally ill at the time of the murder and should therefore serve a life sentence.

Ms Lindh's family and public prosecutors are calling for the appeals court decision to be overturned in favour of a harsher sentence.

But Mijailovic's lawyer will argue that the initial murder conviction should be quashed on the grounds that his client did not intend to kill Ms Lindh - although he has admitted the attack on her.

The July appeals court ruling had upheld the murder conviction against Mijailovic.

Ms Lindh died of her injuries on 11 September last year, a day after Mijailovic stabbed her while she was out shopping in a Stockholm department store.

Mijailovic has claimed he heard voices telling him to attack Ms Lindh, but that they said nothing about killing her.

Ms Lindh had been tipped as a possible future prime minister.

Her death stunned a nation which had still not come to terms with the unsolved killing in 1986 of the then prime minister, Olof Palme.